Life Coach Training

Do people understand what coaching is?

In my experience, from life coach training, in the vast majority of cases the answer is no. The market doesn’t really get it. I'll pose this question to you. You have just 2 minutes to explain what you do and why I should pay you money to receive what you do. Can you give me a crystal clear response to that question and above all a response that makes me say…let me have your phone number please? Too many coaches can't and if the customer doesn’t understand the benefits they wont get their chequebooks out. The corporate and small business market likes to use the word a lot and you will notice that these days job advertisements for managers require them to be able to coach their teams, but I know that a lot of the time they use the word in ignorance. You owe it to yourselves to be able to define it a lot better for yourself and your clients. The client needs to be sure you can offer great personal development and business development services.

What is for sure is that corporations are increasingly looking for better definitions of what a coach should do and in tandem with this they are looking for ways in which the effectiveness of the coach can be measured. If you can help them they are going to be more receptive to you. However remember one important fact- the market is receptive to the notion of coaching. Being able to produce better definitions of the benefits becomes much easier when you become clear yourself about the areas in which you operate. I have scoured the web with searches such as “what is coaching”, “definition of coaching” and its all rather vague…Here are a few examples

A coach is a person who teaches and directs another person via encouragement and advice. This use of the term "coaching" appears to have origins in English traditional university "cramming" in the mid-19th century. (The name allegedly recalls the multi-tasking skills associated with controlling the team of a horse-drawn stagecoach.) By the 1880s American college sports teams had…

Life coach training teaches us that coaching is a strategy used to help a client reach his/ her fullest potential and achieve her goals. The coach first helps to define the goals, and then supports the client in executing them by mapping out a strategy and helping her stay on track. Coaching helps to balance work, family and social demands as well as leisure and spiritual activities…

Coaching can provide empowerment and support in a wide variety of ways. Whether we are seeking a change, or simply want to proceed in our lives with more focus and vigor, a good coach can make all the difference….

Of course these are all perfectly legitimate statements but are they enough to generate empathy and understanding and compel people to take action? This is my definition of coaching, from what I have learned in my life coach training, and one that the people I work with have found clearer to understand. . .

“Coaching is the process of defining a problem, achieving clarity on the desired future state and gaining commitment to a well formed set of actions and measurements to get there. As a result the individual or organisation improves and is able to demonstrate it”